


Pitfalls

by KarateSven



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Found Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:11:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarateSven/pseuds/KarateSven
Summary: They don’t expect to be so different after the fight.





	

They don’t expect to be so different after the fight.

Zordon warned them that being a Power Ranger comes with certain burdens, and it didn’t take long for them to figure out just what those are. He told them that their lives would change, and not always for the better. What the five of them didn’t realize is that it was the most mundane moments that sometimes were the hardest

 

Billy hates water.

He doesn’t hate it so much as he is terrified of it. He can take a shower and stand in the rain just fine but, when faced with a swimming pool or lake, he balks. Hesitates. When he goes to train with the other rangers he has to ground himself every time, prepare for the feel of cold water enveloping him, reminding himself not to panic, to just swim and touch down on the other side. 

He remembers being helpless to save himself as the metal chains pulled him under the surface; as water filled his nostrils, his lungs, and choked him into silence. The dulled screaming of his friends and his own fading heartbeat filling his ears as the world went black. 

He works on it; tries to figure out this new feeling like an equation, like a problem that could be easily solved. It’s Jason who reminds him.

“It’s okay to be scared.” He says, handing Billy a towel. 

“But I don’t want to be. It’s just water.”

“Fear isn’t always rational Billy.” His grey-blue eyes were far away, but warm and understanding. “Sometimes you just need to feel what you feel and know that it’s there.” He still hates water, but maybe, 

maybe not as much as before.

 

Jason is afraid of failure.

Being a ranger isn’t like being a quarterback; he can’t afford to screw up. He can’t afford to lose. Ever.

Because if he fails, if he loses, the other rangers might die. They might die because he doesn’t know what he’s doing or he might make the wrong call. They trust him, and i return he has to make sure they succeed.

Sometimes he thinks he’s doing well, that he’s learning. 

Other times he’ll wake in the middle of the night; a scream on his lips and ringing in his ears as images of dead bodies, his dead friends, fade away. And he’ll come into the training the next day more determined and focused than before. He spends hours looking up tactical maneuvers, attack formations, and defensive strategies, burning terms and images into his brain so he can use them later. 

He was never afraid of losing before, but the stakes are higher now. And losing isn’t an option anymore.

 

Kimberly dreams of falling.

It’s not that she’s scared of heights, she likes being high above the clouds and having a birds-eye view of Angel Grove. 

But then she’ll get a flash of memory; of Goldar swatting at her with his giant hands, only this time his hit actually cripples her zord and she crashes back to earth with a scream on her lips. 

At first she finds it somewhat poetic; the popular girl, who dropped from grace, is scared of falling. But after she flies out of bed in terror for the fourth time in a week, she stops finding it so poetic. 

She tries flying around in her zord; forcing herself to face the sky and all its limits. Sometimes it works. Sometimes she has to land and wait for her breathing to even out again. There are dreams where she isn’t even in her zord at all, just plummeting to earth with nothing and no one to help her. 

It’s after another fly around where the other rangers pull her out and calm her down; with Zack handing her a bottle of water and Trini gently rubbing circles into her back. They don’t force her to explain, they understand, just stay with her until she can breathe normally again. 

It’s then that Kim realizes that even if she falls, there are still four people on the ground who care enough to try and catch her.

 

Zack doesn’t like small spaces. 

More specifically he doesn’t like small hot spaces. Back in his small room he’s taken to opening the window and turning on a fan at all times, because it gets very hot very fast and he can’t stand it. 

When a classroom gets too hot his knee starts bouncing. The incessant tap-tap-tap of his heel on the plastic tile floor grounding him to the present, keeping the spinning in his head at bay. There are times, when the space gets too small and too hot, he can hear his friends groaning, can hear Trini’s voice in his ear: "Zack! Stay with me Zack!" and he has to leave. Has to wash his face with cold water and pace, letting the anxiety coiled in his chest unravel with each step. 

His mom notices. When he brings her her medicine she’ll have a cold towel waiting, and they’ll sit together in companionable silence as he lets the cold rag calm his nerves. 

His zord, by some odd miracle, knows too. Because whenever he straps in and takes off there’s always an abundance of cool air filtered into the cockpit. 

The other rangers know without saying it. They know whenever he has a headache or whenever it becomes too much; Billy will hand him a towel full of ice with a soft smile and Jason will pat him on the shoulder and tell him to rest. He never says it out loud but he’s grateful for to have them.

 

Trini stays away from touching.

At first no one else notices. She wasn’t a very touchy-feely kind of person to begin with and the other rangers respectfully keep their distance. 

It’s only after Seamus Killian, a boy in their biology class, pulls what’s supposed to be a harmless prank, do her friends realize that something isn’t quite right.

“You almost broke his arm.” Kim gazes at Trini, her brown eyes open and waiting. Trini lets out a puff of frustrated air and looks away.

“He shouldn’t have put that rubber snake on my shoulder.”

“You’re not afraid of snakes Trini. Please tell me what’s wrong.”

Trini turns back to her, her jaw clenched and face unreadable as she decides what information she should give away. She sighs then, a harsh sound in the stillness, and pulls back the collar of her shirt, showing off the three pale scars running don her neck to her collarbone.

“I can still feel her claws sometimes.” She says, and Kim understands. 

Rita preyed on her deepest insecurities, her weaknesses, and forced them to the surface for Trini to see. At night she’ll feel the press of cold metal against her throat and morph into her armor, knowing that even if Rita isn’t coming back, at least she’ll be ready this time. 

As time goes on it gets easier; in fact she gets comfortable enough to hug the other rangers and loop their arms together. But that one spot on her neck stays off-limits to everyone, because not all scars fade with time. 

 

They learn to adapt, to change and grow, and sometimes it’s hard, unbearable even, but at least they have each other and, for now, that’s enough for them.

**Author's Note:**

> You know when i wrote this at 3am last night I didn't expect it to be so sad but here we are. If you wanna yell at me abt this come find me at shadehunters.tumblr.com


End file.
